


What Fate Might Be

by delible_ink



Series: Clayleb Week 2019 [4]
Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Breakfast in Bed, Clayleb Week (Critical Role), Claylebweek2019, Established Relationship, Fate & Destiny, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-08
Updated: 2019-11-08
Packaged: 2021-01-25 22:54:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,834
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21363991
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/delible_ink/pseuds/delible_ink
Summary: Clayleb Week 2019Prompts 4 &5: Heart to Heart/Quiet Moments; Fate and DestinyA quiet morning with breakfast in bed, and some talks about fate. Just fluffy with a sprinkle of angst.Set in a nebulous future, but spoiler-free.
Relationships: Caduceus Clay/Caleb Widogast
Series: Clayleb Week 2019 [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1536221
Comments: 2
Kudos: 43





	What Fate Might Be

Snow blanketed the city in silence. Caduceus could smell the crisp freeze even before he looked up from his pillow to confirm it.  
They wouldn’t be leaving the inn today. He found that comforting. Caduceus loved the changing of the seasons, and the things the trees said in their dreamy winter sleep. The thought of the world coming to a halt was particularly attractive at the moment, with Caleb wrapped around him, snoring softly under a heap of blankets.

It had been going on for a while now, but the excitement didn’t fade for Cad. At the Xhorhaus, as everyone began to turn in, Caleb would wait for Cad at the stairs, and ask if he’d like company. Caduceus always said yes. If Caleb needed to sleep in his own bed, he’d lace his fingers together with Caduceus’, and ask if he would like to stay a little longer, and offer to make breakfast with him in the morning. They’d scarcely spent a night apart in several months. More often than not, they just slept, the mere presence of each other all they needed. And when there was more,well, that was really nice too. Caduceus loved everything about his nights with Caleb, especially now that Caleb seemed to be moving past the need to constantly apologize for them.

It wasn’t until this trip that Caleb had been bold enough about their relationship to ask for a change of sleeping arrangements at an inn. Nott wasn’t surprised in the least, but felt it was her obligation as his best friend to loudly offer him a vial of her “Rhino Sex” potion since he would be rooming with his boyfriend. She waggled her eyebrows and grinned. Caduceus smiled to himself. He’d never seen Caleb blush that fast or that fiercely before.

Now that blush was gone, replaced by a gentle tinge of pink beneath the dusting of freckles across his face, warm in his bed against the winter world outside. Caduceus marveled at the softness that overtook his Caleb when he slept.  
_My Caleb? Hmm...I wonder when that started_. Caduceus ruminated on the idea. Caleb was his friend, his love, his to protect and his to serve, and he wholeheartedly belonged to Caleb, as much as he belonged to Melora.  
_I guess that is what love does, in a way. It makes you belong to each other._  
Caduceus warmed at the thought. Slowly, as carefully as possible, he slipped out of bed. Of course, Caleb still woke up. His hand shot out defensively, as it so often did when something unexpected woke him. Cad hoped eventually he’d learn to feel safe, and let himself rest entirely when he slept.  
“It’s just me, Cay. Just me.” Cad knelt and smoothed back Caleb’s hair. Caleb’s tension melted and he blinked bleary-eyed at Caduceus. “I was going to bring us some breakfast, and coffee. Go back to sleep.”  
Caleb mumbled something in Zemnian, the only parts of which Caduceus understood were something about coffee, and “love you.” Caduceus grinned. Caleb was far more verbal in his affections before breakfast, probably because he wasn’t awake enough to be secretive with them. Caduceus was determined to learn Zemnian, if only to understand more of those mutterings..

Caduceus dressed and padded down the stairs, giddy with his half-formed plans for the day. He greeted the inn-keeper warmly, and convinced her to let him make breakfast to take back to his room, offering to help her get an early start on breakfast for the other guests.

An hour or so later, Caduceus was humming to himself carrying a tray full of steaming potatoes, eggs and scallions, a small pot of coffee, and a pot of tea. He’d even brought cream and sugar. Caleb liked cream and sugar in his coffee, but very rarely accepted it, except on special occasions. Caduceus felt this morning was plenty special for it. The sight of Caleb, half-asleep and smiling, melted Caduceus. He set the tray down on the nightstand and removed his shirt. He needed to feel that skin against his own. Sliding under the blankets, he wrapped Caleb snugly in his arms, and covered his head in soft, delighted kisses.  
“Good morning, sweetness.” he rumbled.  
“Mmm. Good morning to you. I see you brought presents--are the others awake? I did not think we would have time for our own breakfast.”  
“We’re not going further today, love. Snowstorm last night. Looks like it’s still going.”  
Caleb felt a twinge of anxiety in his gut: they had been following a lead in their investigations on the Cerberus Assembly. He feared anything that might slow them down.  
Caduceus tugged him back from his thoughts “I was hoping...you might spend the day with me? It’s not often we get a break like this.”  
“I...I should do research. I should do...something.” He sat up, and almost immediately realized how foolish he sounded. He had a room to himself with the dearest man in the world, breakfast beside them, and Caduceus practically begging not to waste the opportunity. But Caleb was torn: the Assembly was his responsibility. His story. What if they lost their chance? What if resting today cost them some crucial piece of information?  
Cad saw the worry in his brow. “You know, Caleb, maybe today is a gift. Maybe a little rest, a little time just to ourselves is exactly what we need. It could give us the clarity to focus on the task ahead tomorrow.”  
Caleb looked across the room, watching the snow fall in heaps. He listened to the stillness as Cad continued.  
“No one is going to do business in that. No library research, no shopping, certainly no travel.” Cad reached a hand out and stroked his thumb over Caleb’s knee. “Maybe Someone, Something, is telling us it is time to wait.”  
Caleb smirked as he cocked an eyebrow “You believe Melora is guiding the weather so that you and I can stay in bed together all day? That is the kind of thing gods design for us?”  
“Honestly, she’s done weirder things than that this week alone. I wouldn’t say it’s beyond the scope of her guidance.”  
Caleb reached for the bowls of breakfast and handed one to Caduceus. “Your god has a peculiar notion of importance if our romantic endeavors are the fate she is most concerned with.” He took a bite. “Mmm. Cad, this is incredible.”  
Cad grinned “Divine, even, Mr. Caleb?”  
“Do not use breakfast against me like that. It is very unkind...but I do believe you had her help with the potatoes.”  
Caduceus laughed. It was easier these days, to distract Caleb from his worry. Not always, but for the most part, easier.

Caleb looked to the tray and saw the coffee waiting for him. He eyed the cream and sugar. “Caduceus, you did not have to...”  
Cad turned and began adding cream until it was the rich caramel color Caleb liked, and two spoons of sugar. “No, I didn’t have to. But I wanted to.” He leaned forward and kissed Caleb’s cheek as he handed him the mug, and took up his own cup of tea.  
“Is it going to worry you? Staying here today?”  
Caleb shrugged, and sipped his coffee. “Ja. I mean...Caduceus, I know what these people can do. The sooner we can stop them, the more lives we save.”  
Caduceus nodded. “Unless we can’t.”  
“What do you mean can’t? I don’t see any other way. We have to stop them.”  
“I agree. I...what they’ve done, what Trent alone has done to you is enough for me to agree on that. But, if now isn’t the time, we could end up dead, the Assembly hides our deaths or smoothes it over. No one ever learns the things they’ve done, and they continue the same as before. Fate has a way of working things out in its own time. I believe we’re working within that design, towards it, where we can. Maybe we are being given today, to love each other, to enjoy each other...but it may have more purpose than that. It might provide an advantage we need in the long run to stop the Cerberus Assembly. We will have to see.”  
Caleb sighed, and looked out the window. “I do not think Fate is so benevolent a creature with me as it is to you, Caduceus.”  
“Mmm. Maybe, Mr. Caleb.”  
For a little while they sat in silence, soaking up the steam from their mugs, pondering what the other had said. It was Caduceus who spoke first.  
“Do you remember what you said to me, that first night back in Zedash, Caleb?”  
Caleb set down his empty mug and looked at Caduceus. “Which part?”  
“You said ‘Caduceus Clay, we are your destiny.’”  
Caleb gave a weak smile. “I was drunk.”  
“Yes. But you were also right. If you hadn’t come around, I would still be in a graveyard, unable to stop the corruption encroaching on my home, unsure of my direction, of what had become of my family...still believing I had been abandoned by the Wildmother. I would be completely alone.”  
Caleb winced. Caduceus rarely spoke of his time tending the Blooming Grove on his own. He had only mentioned his crisis of faith one other time to Caleb, and he knew how much it pained Cad. He knew how much his lover feared the possibility of living in isolation, of being forgotten, unwanted, unloved. He shifted on the bed to hug Caduceus around the middle as Cad propped his head back against the headboard.  
“You saved me, and it has meant so many things on a grand scale: the battles we’ve fought, the war we’ve shifted, the answers we’ve started to find, and those things are all very important, world changing even. But what they mean on the smaller scale of my brief existence, I think that matters too. They get tied together.” Cad hugged Caleb and tried to find the words he wanted. It was so much harder to articulate this than to just trust it, to just believe.  
“You are my destiny, for the big parts and for the small parts. I’m glad I was on the path you chose, and I guess, I just wanted to say that today...could be another one of those paths.”

Caleb turned Caduceus’ words over in his mind. He could see how much he had changed since he met the Mighty Nein, and even more, how much he’d changed since meeting Caduceus, learning to fall in love again, to be loved, in ways he never had. It was not something he would have chosen for himself, and yet here he was. It was a kindness far beyond what he expected or deserved. There was certainly something “other” about that, and fate is a way one could put it.

“I would like to go with your version of today then, Caduceus. I’ll trust you with that fate.”


End file.
